Rachel's Quest
by percabethrules
Summary: Rachel must give her first proper prophecy - to Nico. The young camper and the Oracle have become good friends so can Rachel face another loss, if that is what the prophecy brings?


My new cave-house is pretty cool.

Yes, I said 'cave'. I don't mean that I'm one of those eco-maniacs who give up bathing and technology to be more environmentally friendly; although I am all for helping Mother Earth, but that's not why I live in a cave. Last summer, along with a whole load of other things, I found out that I was the new Camp Half-Blood Oracle. And so now I have to spend every summer in a cave.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Apollo takes care of his Oracles and he totally decked out the place for me so it was 'to my liking'. I have a bed and a built-in mini toilet and shower just like a regular house. But other than that, the place is just like nowhere I have ever stayed before. It's pretty huge and I chose Day-Glo orange for the walls to brighten it up. On the walls, I hung up a whole load of pictures with extra-strong double-sided tape like a couple of _Save the Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers _posters and another which advertises the Harvard Art Program and lots of my own paintings of Camp, campers (hi, Percy…and Annabeth), one of Chiron with his bow and the biggest which takes up almost an entire wall: my painting of the cabins and the fire outside them with a tiny Hestia tending the flames. In one corner of the cave is my art studio with paints and canvases splayed across the floor, and the pink marble worktops overflowing with brushes and other art equipment. In another corner is my 'den'. There's a giant flat-screen HD TV with a built in DVD player attached to the wall with wires connecting the Wii and my iPod docking station. The last corner is separated off by bead curtains which are charmed to never let anyone but me enter or see my personal living quarters unless I want them to.

The last corner is where I do all my prophesising. It looks just like something from a storybook psychic's lair, complete with a crystal ball which is Apollo's idea of a joke. It's really small since my 'house' takes up most of the room but is big enough for a solid oak table covered with bits of gold trinkets and the fake crystal ball and a patterned cloth from Athena's weaving workshop. There are two plush beanbags from the same place, brightly coloured and really comfortable; images of heroes and battles are woven into the fabric in gold thread, like Hercules defeating the hydra and Tyson throwing something at Kampe. This is where I have to sit when a camper comes in need of a prophecy or when Nico comes in need of company (even though Percy and Annabeth don't really mind having him around, he says that they make him want to throw up with the hand-holding and laughing _all_ the time. He just doesn't understand that not everyone is as lonely or constantly moody as he is).

Sometimes it seems lonely out here, away from the camp but overlooking it. I can't go down there apart from at mealtimes since I'm not a demigod, even to visit the few friends I have, and the campers aren't allowed to come see me without permission even though a few like Percy, Annabeth and Nico sneak up with gossip or news or sweets from the outside world. When it's sunny and I'm outside watering my small garden – a patch of grass about a foot wide with moonlace growing around the edges - I can hear the shouts from volleyball games or cheers and screams from Capture The Flag and I feel lonely but usually I can occupy myself with painting or listening to my music really loud. The cave has Wi-Fi so it's not too bad.

Days like today, though, are really bad because the rain stops everything. When it rains, the front of the cave and the Oracle room gets pretty much flooded since I have no front-door. Apollo had offered to put a rock there which would be charmed to not be too heavy to move, but even with the built-in ventilation, it made me feel claustrophobic so I got rid of it. I have to stay in my living area unless I want to get soaked through. You'd think 'That's not so bad' except the Wi-Fi acts up, the TV gets no signal and it's no fun playing Super Mario Brothers or listening to the same four-thousand songs over and over again.

_Forty ugly chimeras standing in the rain, forty ugly chimeras standing in the rain, and if that chimera got accidentally slain, there'd be thirty-nine ugly chimeras standing in the rain…_

"Rachel!"

I sat up from my bed, giving myself whiplash, at the sound of my name. I hopped off and pulled on my rain-jacket, then rushed to the Oracle room.

"Nico?" I said, seeing him standing there soaked with water dripping from his hair, "What are you doing? You needed company so bad that you risked breaking your neck climbing those rocks up here? Seriously, you could have broken-"

"Shut up, Rachel." Nico panted, trying to shake himself dry like a dog, "I came because I had a dream. There's trouble and Chiron sent me up to get a prophecy. Rachel, I'm leading a quest!"


End file.
